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The Bacchae and Other Plays
The Bacchae and Other Plays
Nov 24, 2025 1:25 PM

Author:Euripides

The Bacchae and Other Plays

Through their sheer range, daring innovation, flawed but eloquent characters and intriguing plots, the plays of Euripides have shocked and stimulated audiences since the fifth century BC. Phoenician Women portrays the rival sons of King Oedipus and their mother's doomed attempts at reconciliation, while Orestes shows a son ravaged with guilt after the vengeful murder of his mother. In the Bacchae, a king mistreats a newcomer to his land, little knowing that he is the god Dionysus disguised as a mortal, while in Iphigenia at Aulis, the Greek leaders take the horrific decision to sacrifice a princess to gain favour from the gods in their mission to Troy. Finally, the Rhesus depicts a world of espionage between the warring Greek and Trojan camps.

Reviews

Sophisticated comedy-what gives it its distinction is the quality of observation and the unusual marriage of high spirits with melancholy awareness of the passing of time

—— Scotsman

Irresistible

—— Literary Review

An acute observer of manners and styles

—— Independent

Here is an imagination that effortlessly brings character after character to valiant, preposterous, malevolent or desperate life. Here is a writer who deserves to be far more widely read

—— Spectator

It has a lightness, a breadth... an impressive energy and a humane comedy... Entertaining and affecting

—— Times Literary Supplement

Why is he not spoken of in the same breath as Amis, Barnes and co? One of the best novels I have read this year

—— D. J. Taylor , Independent on Sunday

The only bad thing about this novel is that it had to end

—— Sunday Telegraph
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